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c 



SPEECH 



/ 



OF" ILLINOIS, 



/ 



HON. WILLIAM ' E. MASON, 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



TUESDAY, MAY 18,1897. 



WASHINGTON. 
IS 97 . 



F/7*L 



310 



T/ar in Cul)a. 



s^ SFBBOH 

>y OF 

#H0N. WILLIAM E. MASON 



V 



, » The Senate having under consideration the joint resolution (S. B. 28) ae- 

»> daring that a condition of public war esisfcs in Cuba, and that strict neutral- 

V ity shall be maintained— 

Mr. MASON said: 

Mr. President: That we may have a fair -understanding as to 
the pending joint resolution, I desire briefly to state its contents. 
As I understand it, it is Senate joint resolution No. 26, Order of 
Business on the Calendar 59. I desire to call the attention of the 
Senate to the fact that it was introduced on the 1st day of April, 
and on the 6th of April it was placed on the Calendar. 

The provisions of the joint resolution are, simply: 

Resolved, etc., That a condition of public war esists between the Govern- 
ment of Spain and a government proclaimed and for some time maintained 
by force of arms by the people of Cuba, and that the United States of Amer- 
ica shall maintain a strict neutrality between the contending powers, ac- 
cording to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the 
United States. 

One of the interesting thing3 to be discussed might be the 
"state of the art," as we call it in the law, of this particular res- 
olution. It will be the "state of the art" of polite delay, to take 
the place of the old-fashioned game we used to call filibustering. 
Some of our distinguished friends in the minority have delayed ac- 
tion clay after day upon the pending joint resolution upon one pre- 
tense after another, although long before I took my seat in this 
Chamber the people of the United States had expected this body to 
speak upon this question. Day after clay the people have heard 
for the past month the voice of eloquent Senators saying what 
should be done in this great cause. 



Day 
that this 



ter day the papers have been full of the announcement 
. country was at last to speak, and that the barbarities 
inflicted by the Spaniard on the Cuban were to have some rebuke, 
at least, in the Senate of the United States. The rules of the 
Senate, to which we all bow with such graceful dignity, have 
permitted this gentlemanly filibuster to continue until there is 
to-day no guaranty that the voice of the people will be heard 
here, or that there is to be any protest from the American people, 
either in the legislature or by the Executive, against the sale of 
girls, the murder of children, and the barbarities that the Spaniard 
calls "war." 

That is the state of the art. 

But I want to say to my colleagues now, at the opening of the 
discussion that I shall be indulged in, I am not going to deal in 
technicalities. I am not going to dwell long on international law. 
Every student of international law knows that it is made by force 
and that there is no barbarity of all the past that did not find its 
2 27SG 



^3 



8 

precedent in international law. International law is as flexible 
as time, as changeable as everything else, in the earth. 

I am not studied much in the use of language. I much believe 
in the old-fashioned definition that language is the means of coia- 
municating thought. I have not yet learned to appreciate the 
modern diplomatic definition- that language is the means of con- 
cealing thought. I am here to say as a Republican , I am here to 
carry out the pledge of my party in convention assembled, that 
there is no demand of the intelligent, liberty-loving, Christian 
people of this country which should receive more speedy and full 
recognition than that made upon us, here and now, that we shall 
lift our voices and our hands in defense of liberty in the Island 
of Cuba. Day after day has passed, Mr. President, but no vote 
has been had. No one in this body doubts the reason why. A 
majority of us favor the measure, but the majority can not 
eoMrol. 

The Executive, that splendid American citizen, has been some- 
what criticised, I think by the Senator from Nevada [Mr. Stew- 
art], for some of his ideas upon silver; for there is no discus- 
sion so sacred that will not invite the question if there is the 
jingle of a 10-cent piece on the carpet. He criticises our Presi- 
dent upon his position on the financial question. Some of the 
other friends have been inclined to praise him on account of other 
things. I am here neither to praise nor to criticise the President. 
It is enough for me to know that in the most exciting political 
campaign this country lias ever seen, amidst the heat of battle 
and the dust and noise, William McKinley's name, his splendid 
character, his beautiful life, was like a pillar of fire by night that 
led us to the greatest victory we have known in modern times, for 
an honest currency and for protection to the industries of the 
country. I do not and I shall not criticise him for the delay. I 
trust his judgment even though I may differ with him. I reserve 
the right to express my opinion and to cast my vote upon this 
question when the hour shall come. 

And to prove to you, Mr. President, and to my colleagues upon 
tins floor, "that the hour has come, let me read to you the message 
of yesterday. What is it that we contend for in the joint resolu- 
tion? Namely, that there is a state of war, and that we will agree 
to keep hands off and give every side fair play; to let the insur- 
gents come into this country as well as the Spaniards. Here is 
the proof of the necessity of the pending joint resolution, in the 
communication made yesterday by the President of the United 
States. I desire to read but a part 'of it. The President says: 

The agricultural classes have been forced from their farms into the near- 
est to'vnis, -where they are without work or money. 

Who forced them from their farms? Was it the insurgents? If 
so, then there is war by the confession of the document itself. 
Was it the Spaniards who forced 800 American citizens away 
from a chance to eat bread in the sweat of their own face? Then 
if there is not war, there ought to be, and with us. Eight hundred 
American citizens driven from their homes, starving and un- 
sheltered; yet friends upon this floor say, " We do not think there 
is much of a war." Answer me, then, the question, Who drove 
these American citizens from their homes? Stand by them one 
way or the other. If they were driven away by the insurgent, 
you admit the insurgent is strong enough to make war. If they 
were driven away by the Spaniard, you ought to be men enough 
to stand up and give heart and courage to'the struggling people 
27SG 



4 

of Cuba and to defend American citizens, not alone with a piece 
of bread, but, if need be, with bayonets and a "Long Tom." 

I call your attention, Mr. President, to another part of this 
message. I voted for it. I had no desire to antagonize that reso- 
lution in order to pass this resolution, which I think more impor- 
tant. It was half a loaf better than none. Let me read you fur- 
ther on in this same message: 

Tlio local authorities of the several towns, however kindly disposed, are 
unable to relieve the needs of their own people and are altogether powerless 
to help our citizens. 

What is the matter with our citizens in Cuba? They are hun- 
gry in a state of peace, in a land flowing with milk and honey, 
where all you have to do is to put your hand out and gather the 
gifts of God Almighty to feed yourself, and yet we are told by 
those who say there is no war that they can not provide themselves 
with what they need to eat. Again I say, Who prevents it? Is 
it the insurgent? Then there is war. Is it the Spaniard? Then 
there ought to be war. 

I will read one more sentence from this document, which proves 
the necessity of the passage of the joint resolution under consid- 
eration: 

The latest report of Ccnsul-G-eneral Leo estimates sis to eight hundred 
Americans are without means of support. 

How did it happen, Mr. President? American citizens there 
investing their money, tying their life and their futures with the 
future of Cuba. How did it happen that sis or eight hundred of 
them, known to the Consul-General, are out of food and out of 
employment? 

It is desirable that a part of the sum which may be appropriated by Con- 
gress should, in the discretion of the Secretary of State, also be used for the 
transportation of American citizens who, desiring to return to the United 
States, are without means to do so. 

Eight hundred Americans starving in the Island of Cuba, and 
we boasting of the right of an American to go anywhere in the 
world! And now we stand in this position: Instead of demand- 
ing of the Spaniard alike with the insurgent protection for Amer- 
ican citizens, we say: "Please, Mr. Spaniard, we do not mind 
your killing the Cuban women and children; we do not mind 
your selling the daughters of the insurgent to the lustful sensu- 
alists of the Spanish army, but, oh, please, kind Mr. Spaniard, 
with the gentle, insinuating stiletto, let us take a little American 
bread to give to oru- poor, starving Americans in your peaceable 
island; and then, if they want to, please let us bring them home, 
so that we can protect them under our flag." [Manifestations 
of applause in the galleries.] 

The PRESIDING OFFICER rapped with his gavel. 

Mr. MASON. And yet there is no war in Cuba! If the non- 
coinbatant is starving to death, what is the combatant doing? if 
American citizens, 800 in one place, are being driven like dogs and 
swine into a herd, and the Spanish Government, refusing to feed 
them, compels us to send from our store, in the name of God, if it 
is not war, what is it? 

Tne joint resolution we passed was this: 

That the sum of $50,000 be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any 
money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the relief of suffering 
American citizens in the Island of Cuba, said money to be expended at the 
discretion and under the direction of the Consul-General of the United States 
at Habana. 

" Suffering American citizens! " Do we mean to give notice to the 
world that Coxey's army has moved down to the Island of Cuba — 
that they are tramps — or do you mean to say, by the resolution 
3736 



that passed yesterday, that SOO American citizens, as good as you 
or I, entitled to the same defense under our flag as yon or I, are 
suffering because the brute in command of the island drives them 
like dogs away from the place where they can supply their daily 
needs? We are so tender and so fearful of injuring the delicate 
feelings of the Spanish minister that we are willing to humiliate 
our citizens and feed them with the hand of charity, and yet the 
Senate of the United States says there is no war — the minority says 
so, and a minority of this body is always the Senate of the United 
States. [JLaughter.] 

Mr. President, I only want one minute upon the question of 
what brought about this condition of affairs. It is familiar to 
every gentleman upon this floor. Those people suffer exactly as 
our fathers suffered in 1770 and on until we relieved ourselves of 
the yoke of England — that lovely old mother country to whom 
we owe so ranch, as my eloquent friend from Maryland says. Yes, 
we do owe her a great deal, but, thank God, we settled a part of 
it at Bunker Hill. [Laughter.] There may have been a little 
balance in her favor, but we settled that by our votes here within 
the past two weeks. 

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. 

The very moment that a Cuban baby comes from the womb of 
a Cuban mother that baby is taxed. When it is taken out of the 
cradle, its very swaddling clothes are taxed. Carried to the church 
to be christened, the very benediction of G-od is taxed — not by a 
kind of a tariff tax, Brother Mills, but a tax to go toward keep- 
ing the Spaniard in idleness and lazy luxury. They are taxed 
from the cradle to the grave. When the groom takes his bride to 
the altar, she is taxed, if she has not been before sacrificed to some 
brutal Spaniard. 

Revolution after revolution sprang up, and when the insurgents 
had about won the prize the Spaniard, with that simple diplo- 
macy — they are always diplomatic — with which they have always 
convinced the insurgents in revolution after revolution, persuaded 
them if they would only lay down their arms they would be bet- 
ter treated. Ten years at one time they stayed out. This time 
they have been out two years. Is it wonderful, Mr. President, is 
it at all surprising, that to-day the brave leader of the insurgent 
army says he has no compromise to make? The Cubans have been 
raxed and robbed until there is no choice but death or starvation. 

After the boy married the girl and went into business he was 
taxed. The sign over his door was taxed. The Spaniard found 
that was not enough, and put a tax upon each letter of his sign. 
They taxed his clerks, his amount of business, and stopped only 
when their grinding exactions threatened to crush out his life, 
and thus put an end to extortion. The native-born Cuban, up to 
some two years ago, could not even teach school in his own baili- 
wick, and has never been permitted to hold any office of honor or 
trust. Some_of their children came to our schools. They heard 
the music of Yankee Doodle, and they took back to their insurgent 
father and brother the story of Bunker Hill, and they have begun 
to demand their right— their right to govern themselves. 

Let me say to you, Mr. President, whether we shall sit • 
on and on; whether we shall continue, in this dignified body, to 
be silent when all the people ask us to speak; whether the United 
States shall do its duty or not. under the providence of God, Cuba 
shall be free. There shall be no slave on the continent where our 
flag floats. [Manifestations of applause in the galleries.] 
2786 



My friend from Maryland yesterday asked the question : ' ' V/here 
is the Cuban government?" 1 am going to ask the Secretary to 
read a statement -which will take hut two minutes. I propose to 
give my authority — Mr. Decker, ono of those newspaper men who 
like to deal in fiction when they run short of facts, as my brother 
said, which I do not agree with. 

The PRESIDING OFFICES (Mr. Shwell in the chair). The 
Secretary will read as requested, in the absence of objection. . 

The Secretary read as follows: 

CUBAN GOVERNMENT. 

Salvador Cisneros, President of the Republic of Cuba, lias his headquar- 
ters, witha full cabinet of officers (and has continuously maintained it there), 
within 3 miles of Cubitas. Cubitas is a Spanish fortified town in the 
province of Puerto Principe, and about 50 miles northwest of Puerto Prin- 
cipe, the capital of that province. It is to the east of the trocha. In Janu- 
ary last President Cisneros and his cabinet crossed the trocha and joined 
Gomez and remained with him until the end of February, when, at Gomez's 
suggestion, he again crossed the trocha and returned to his headquarters, 
Gomez remarking: " You know you are perfectly safe there." They have a 
constitution, a code of civil law, a code of military law, a military recruit- 
ing law, and an electoral law. 

Under that law twenty -four delegates are now being elected to a central 
congress which is to convene September 2, 1897, for the purpose of electing a 
President and for the transaction or such ether business as may come before 
it. The island is divided into districts, which are again divided into prefec- 
tures, and these into subprefectures. These prefects and subprefects are 
administering civil government according to the civil code. They also act as 
commissaries for the army and as postal officers. A very perfect and efficient 
postal service is in operation. Mr. Earl Decker, who is authority for these 
statezn aa is, having just come from a two months' sojourn with Gomez and 
the Cuban patriots, wrote and mailed through this insurgent postal service 
a letter to Consul General Lee at Iiabana detailing the death of Mr. Crosby 
and started for Habana the same day. His letter reached iiabana six days 
before he did. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. Will the Senator allow me one ques- 
tion? 

Mr. MASON. Yes, sir. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. I wish to ask the Senator whether that 
is the kind of information the Senate of the United States is to 
accept as to the existence of a government in the Island of Cuba? 

Mr. MASON. Mr. President, when struggling humanity can 
only speak through its best methods; when the insurgent is sur- 
rounded by the Spaniard, who sells his daughter and murders his 
boy; when American correspondents of the newspapers go into 
the forests to find the news, and when the Spaniard covers every 
port of entry on the Island of Cuba, we should, in the name of 
humanity, take the best we can get and be satisfied with that. If 
this account should overstate the facts; if it be not true that 
they have an election; if it be not true that they have a capital, 
we do know this: The wealth, of a nation is not measured by the 
capitol dome: the wealth of humanity is not measured by the 
money in the banks or the miles of railroad, and if the govern- 
ment of struggling Cuba to-day holds its capital under the trees, 
with nothing but God and the stars for a shelter, 1 am for that 
government just the same. [Manifestations of applause in the 
galleries.] 

The information, of course, has not been conveyed by an am- 
bassador nor other representative of the insurgent government, 
for none is here; he has not yet been received by our Executive; 
we have not yet declared that such government exists, and the 
effort to-day is, upon the information we have, to lend a helping 
hand to this extent, by acknowledging their belligerent rights and 
giving the insurgents who fight for liberty the same right to buy 

S7S6 



our 'wheat, the same right to buy our corn, and the same right to 
buy our guns that the Spaniard has in our open markets. 

Mr. GALLINGER. If theSenator -will permit me, in addition 
to the testimony given by Mr. Karl Decker, I hold in my hand 
Document No. 19, published by the Senate, "which shows the ab- 
solute existence of a government in the Island of Cuba, and not 
only that, but gives the constitution of the Republic of Cuba and 
certain laws which have been passed. Perhaps the Senator has 
overlooked the existence of this document. 

Mr. MASON. I had heard of the document, but have never 
seen it. 

Mr. GALLINGiiR. I think it would be well for the Senator 
from Maryland to see it. 

Mr. MASON. "A government on paper," says the Senator 
from Maryland. That is more than Washington had at Valley 
Forge. 

Mr. W ELLINGTON. I beg the Senator's pardon. 

Mr. MASON. I will give you nardon, but that is true. 
[La n^hter. 1 

Mr. WELLINGTON. I deny it. 

Mr. MASOZs . I do not care what you deny; it is true. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. Oh, but stick to facts. Mr. President, I 
insist upon having fairness in this discussion, it is not neces- 
sary to go outside of the truth and. start in upon fiction. You 
know, sir, and I know, that when Washington was at Valley 
Forge he had a government back of him. He had a government 
back of him before he went to Valley Forge. We know very 
well that when Washington was at Valley Forge it was the 
darkest hour of the Revolution. It is true that he was then sur- 
rounded by his Continentals, barefooted, hatless, ragged, and torn, 
but back of them there was a government, back of them was a 
Continental Congress, which had appointed Washington to be 
the Commander in Chief of that army. The Senator very well 
knows it. Let us be fair in this discussion. So far as I am con- 
cerned, I am willing to stand by fairness, but I will not be mis- 
represented upon the floor of the Senate. I will not have Amer- 
ican history falsified upon the floor of the Senate for the benefit 
of even the Cuban insurgents. 

Mr. MASON. Mr. President, I am extremely surprised that my 
friend should get excited. I made the statement that Washington 
at 'Valley Forge had a paper government, and it was a paper gov- 
ernment. That paper was not worth a continental damn. [Laugh- 
ter.] The money of your Government was not worth more than 
waste paper in the markets of the world, and you would not have 
had the power at Valley Forge to stem the incoming tide of the 
English if it had not been for Lafaj-ette and public sentiment that 
came to our relief from all over the world. We propose now to 
give to Cuba what Lafayette gave to Washington at Valley Forge. 
[Applause in the galleries.] 

Mr. WELLINGTON. Mr. President, one question more. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland will 
suspend a moment. Occupants of the galleries are reminded that 
they occupy their seats by the courtesy of the Senate, and any 
infringement of the rules of the Senate which require order will 
necessitate having the galleries cleared by the Presiding Officer. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. Mr. President, I am sure that my friend 

the Senator from Illinois is carried away by his sympathy for 

Cuba into making statements that will not be verified by written 

history. He. knows when Washington was at Valley Forge there 

2783 






stood back of him not only a central Government tinder tlie Con- 
tinental Congress, but there was back of that Continental Congress 
thirteen State governments which had been built upon the colo- 
nies which formed the United States of America. He knows full 
well that there were thirteen colonies that had been formed into 
States by the will of the people on each and every occasion. His- 
tory will tell that the State of Maryland had been formed, and 
that the governor of Maryland, a civil officer of that State, sent 
the first regiment that left the Southern colonies to go to the as- 
sistance of Massachusetts in the great Revolutionary struggle — 
the Alleghany Riflemen, from my own section of the State. The 
Senator must know this. 

I want to emphasize, sir, here and now, that there is not in Cuba 
to-day, and there never has been since the beginning of this re- 
bellion or revolution, such a government as you can look to. 
There have been no jury trials, and you know that. Sir, there is 
not in existence there anywhere, in a province or in a central port, 
any government whatsoever that can be so denominated accord- 
ing to law. 

Let us be fair. Let us discuss this. I know I am here in defense 
of a proposition that does not seem to be popular in the country 
to-day. I am willing to wait for vindication, because I am for 
my country and its best interests. 

Mr. GALLlNGER. You will wait forever. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. The Senator says we can wait forever. 

Mr. GALLlNGER. No; you will wait forever, I say. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. No; I am not going to wait forever. 

Mr. GALLlNGER. You will die waiting. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. No; I am not going to die at present. 
[Laughter.] Oh, no; but if you are in favor of liberty and free- 
dom, I will tell you how you can best get it for Cuba, and how 
you can best get it for all the countries around you — make repub- 
lican institutions respectable, say when there is a republic that 
there shall be back of it conservatism and law. 

I am proud of my country, and i do not intend to be placed in a 
false position upon this matter. I am as much an Am erican as is 
the Senator from Illinois. I believe in liberty as much as he does. 
I believe in the flag of the country as much as he does, and when 
it comes to waving the American flag I can do that as well as he 
can. 

But that is not the question. We are now cliscussiiig as to 
whether it is best that the United States of America should recog- 
nize the belligerency of Cuba. In my humble opinion, it is not 
best to do so, and for that reason I have taken the position that I 
took yesterday. One thing I did accomplish yesterday^ It seems 
to have stirred up the gentlemen on the other side, it seems to 
have brought to the fore and front this morning the Senator from 
Rlinois. it has brought him so far that he has left the land of 
truth back of him and is wandering in the land of romance and 
fiction created by himself . Unfortunately, that is not good ground 
to stand upon when you go into international questions. It is not 
a question of what the sympathies of this people may be, but it is 
a question, and a great question, to know as to what the effect will 
be upon the United States of America. 

Mr. President, so far as I am concerned, the applause of the 
galleries or their hootings and laughter make but very little differ- 
ence to me. I am here to carry out for the State I represent the 
feeling and sentiment I have and what I believe to be just, honest, 
and correct, and for the best interests of my country, 
3788 



9 

Mr. MASON, Mr. President, the statement of fact by my col- 
league from Maryland that he will not die is quite sufficient to 
gratify my most sanguine hopes. I hope it is true, but it is like 
some 6f his other statements in regard to the provisional or the 
present government of Cuba. This document, reported by the 
Senator from Minnesota [Mr. Davis] , and the papers accompany- 
ing the report submitted by Hon. J. D. Cameron from the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate on Decem- 
ber 21, 1896, on a joint resolution acknowledging the independence 
of Cuba, gives a full statement of the officers of that government; 
it shows what part of the island is under their control, and shows 
how they collect their taxes. 

It is conceded that we gained our independence with but 3,000,- 
000 of inhabitants. In the Island of Cuba to-day there are a mil- 
lion and a half at least; but the Senator would measure in his 
scales of .-justice and equity the divine question of liberty by mere 
questions of numbers" It follows, therefore, that if 3,000,000 
Americans were entitled to liberty, a million and a half of Cubans 
are only entitled to 50 per cent of liberty. [Laughter.] 

Here is their government. There is a report made by a com- 
mittee before you and I became statesmen [laughter] , before we 
took the oath of office at that desk and began to draw our salaries 
with great regularity [laughter]— speaking for myself. There is 
the report; there is the evidence. The Senator speaks of the great 
duty of the United States Senate. I call his attention to a pub- 
lication in. this morning's newspapers. I know, from the state- 
ment of the Senator and from many of my colleagues, that a news- 
paper statement is like a gentle breeze against the great Eock of 
Gibraltar; but here is the breeze, here is a petition signed by the 
leading merchants of the great cities in your country and mine. 
Let me read you just one line of it. Let me show to the Senator 
that the Republican party was right in its convention platform 
when it said the great question to be settled in the future was to 
recognize belligerency and declare the independence of the Island 
of Cuba. You were elected on that platform, and so was 1. The 
President of the United States accepted that platform in every 
detail, was elected on that platform, and I am here to stand by 
that platform while I continue on the pay roll. [Laughter.] 

The subscribers to this memorial, citizens of the United States, doing 
business as banters, merchants, manufacturers, steamship owners, and 
agents m the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Savannah, 
Charleston, Jacksonville, New Orleans, and other places, and also other citi- 
zens of the United States, who have been for many years engaged in the ex- 
port and import trade with the Island of Cuba, finding that their several 
interests are suffering severely from the long continuance of the struggle 
now going on in the Island of Cuba. 

Oh, there is no struggle there. They are mistaken. They have 
not been informed so officially by the Spanish minister in Wash- 
ington. Every merchant who signed this petition was probably a 
common-sense American citizen. He did not have to wait to be 
notified officially that his cargoes could not go in or come out at 
the ports of entry, lie did not need a telegram from the descend- 
ants of Queen Isabella that he could not do business in the State 
of ISTew York and in the Island of Cuba. This is their petition. It 
is too long to read in full. 

The magnitude of the American commerce with the Island of Cuba is read- 
ily shown bv citing the volume of our trade with that island for the three 



vious years,'during the reciprocity treaty of the United States with Spain. 
2786 



10 

When you read it you can see we have some financial and com- 
mercial interests in this little island as well as the sentiment that 
my friend likes to talk about— that sentiment, that splendid sen- 
timent which is not moved at the sale of women and children, but 
that sentiment that brings tears to the eye at the thought of the 
great-great-great-grandmother who pawned her jewels for Colum- 
bus to cross the ocean. [Laughter.] Yes; she did. We have 
done her all the honors we can, and to her memory. It is not 
against Isabella; but let me call the Senator's attention to the fact, 
in passing, that the Spaniard in 1492 was a Spaniard and a Span- 
iard true. She sent Columbus across the water, risking her 
money against his life, to find gold for the queen; but when he 
could not produce the thing that the Spaniard wanted he was put 
in irons; and he died a pauper; and he is not buried in Spanish 
soil, thank God! who doeth all things well. 

I am not familiar with the practice of the Senate, hut I am grow- 
ing somewhat familiar with some of its practices. [Laughter.] 
I desire, if it is proper, to save the time of the Senate, that this 
splendid petition, containing names of leading merchants in the 
great cities of New York, Philadelphia, and in Bethlehem, Pa. , St. 
Louis, signers in Boston, signers in New Orleans, signers in Mo- 
bile, signers in Pensacola, Fla., signers in Brunswick, Ga., and so 
on to the end of the chapter — I shall be pleased, if it is proper 
(and if it is not, I shall ask the Secretary to read it, so that it may 
go into the Record, not all the names to encumber the Record), 
that it be printed in the Record, so that the Senators of the United 
States may know what the business men of this country think of 
this proposition, that the time has come that America should 
defend her own in the Island of Cuba. 

Mr. MORG-AN. I will suggest to the honorable Senator, if he 
will allow me, that he print that document as an appendix to his 
remarks, and put in all the names. 

Mr. MASON. I ask unanimous consent to do so. 

The PRESIDING- OFFICER, If there be no objection, the doc- 
ument will be printed in the Record, as suggested. 

Mr. MASON. Speaking again of the government of Cuba, I 
have here a half dozen newspapers printed there; in the woods, 
they say. I can not read them. I can not even tell the dates. I 
have only the word of the gentleman who gave me them, and be-, 
cause I happen to be a Senator of the United States I do not think 
I ought to get so far on top of the Capitol that I can not receive 
common, ordinary, intelligent communications. The Spanish min- 
ister has not sent with his seal the statement that that [indicat- 
ing] is a Cuban paper, but I believe it and you believe it. 

It is common sense we are after. It is the common sense that our 
friends on the other side seek to avoid. I want it understood here 
now, as I present this petition from the merchants and the busi- 
ness men of these great cities, that it finds echo in every hamlet 
among the people where I live. During the political campaign 
just closed, during the great struggle for supremacy of the two 
great parties, I felt the pulse of thousands of people. There are 
no Senate rules among the people. In Illinois, if they do not like 
what you say they say so, and if they do, they let you know it. 

In Illinois, from Cairo to Dunleith, 400 miles of the best State 
in the Union, the plain people there, as well as the merchants, 
in response to the proposition that the Cubans should be free, 
agreed with one acclaim whenever it was mentioned; and, while 
to-day the people are waiting with bated breath and financial 
affairs are dependent upon our action on the tariff, when you get at 

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the deep undertone of the conscience of the Christian people oi 
this conntry it says : " Let ns have freedom in Cuba. Let the Span- 
iard go back to his own land, and let us have no slaves upon our 
continent." 

Not that alone makes me make this plea. My friend the Sena- 
tor from Maryland [Mr. Wellington] miclerstands that I appre- 
ciate and honor him for his convictions, and I ask at his kind and 
generous hands only the same consideration I give to him. I have 
not called names. I shall not indulge in that, and I shall not per- 
mit it. Yon can call jingo as long as yon like. You may define 
jingo as long as yon please. Patrick Henry was a jingoist accord- 
ing to the definition of the gentlemen who are trying to defeat the 
insurgents in Cuba. Every man who would rather fight than buy 
peace at the price of the dishonor of his wife or his child has been 
called a jingo from the days of early republics until now. 

I am for the liberty, for the independence of Cuba on a better 
and broader ground. I propose such action as shall secure for 
that island and for ourselves a better environment, not only for 
trade or commerce, not at all for the extension of territory — and 
that is the difference between the ordinary English lawmaker and 
ourselves. A friend of mine who was entertained at a dinner in 
London within three months related to me that when one of the 
great officers of the English navy said, "We are as ready as ever 
to extend English trade with the English navy, : ' the merchants of 
London jumped into their chairs and put their napkins above their 
heads. That is not the sentiment of the American citizen. For 
nineteen hundred years we have professed to follow the Eazarene. 
O it is not the sentiment that comes from an American conscience. 
I would not extend our trade one dollar nor sell one pound of Amer- 
ican com at the point of a bayonet, I would not steal the Island 
- J of Cuba, nor seek the acquisition of territory by force — which is 
another name for grand lareeny — and 1 would not put the Ameri- 
can flag in Hawaii or Cuba, or on the smallest island of the sea, to 
add glory to the flag, without the consent of the poorest inhab- 
itant who lived in that island. That is the difference._ i do not 
want Cuba. I am not praying for annexation. I hope i have one 
glimpse of the divine thought that was in Lincoln's mind when, 
driving along one day, he saw a stiuggling bug upon its back and 
got cut of the carriage and with his cane tnrned~the insect to its 
feet, and when he got back said, "Well, 1 have given him a show, 
an equal show with all the other bugs." [daughter.] 

I wish to give Cuba an equal show. She is not getting it to-day. 
You are keeping it from her. To-day Spain can come into your 
market and buy every gun you have to sell, if she has the money. 
Last night a little band started out to cross the water to take gnus 
and ammunition and dynamite to the insurgents. We witched 
it like hawks. We have filled our prisons with them. We are 
paying taxes to-day to keep native Cubans from going back to fight 
for their own country; and this is America, and this is the United 
States Senate! 

Equal before the law is the demand of the joint resolution. 
Equal rights of belligerency — that is all that is asked for in the 
joint resolution by the Senator who has offered it — not preference, 
not help to the insurgents, but simply to give them a chance, one 
straggling chance, to come to our shores and with then- money 
buy our goods. When you do it, when the sanctity of law is above 
it, in the providence of God there is a Lafayette in this country— -I 
do not know his name, but somewhere among men who have 
grown weary of worshiping the millions some American will 
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have told to him by his boy the story of Lafayette and he will 

build the ship if the Government refuses to do so. He will bring 
ships, he will furnish the courage to the insurgents, he will stand 
for equal rights before the law; and all we ask is this simple propo- 
sition, that hereafter when the Cuban government, so called, offers 
to buy in our markets, offers to set sail from our ports, we will 
treat her exactly as we do the Spanish Government. 

We hesitate because of an ancient barnacle known as interna- 
tionallaw — Presidential prerogative, Congressional jurisdiction — 
and we mingle words with the divine principles of liberty, forget- 
ting for the time that we come from the great liberty-loving peo- 
ple of all the world. 

Mr. President, I was going to read extracts from what purported 
to be instructions of the Assistant Secretary of State to one of our 
consuls in Cuba. Most of you are familiar with them. I do not 
believe it is fair to put into the Record those statements when 
the gentleman is said to deny them. The only denial I see is in 
the press this morning, which says that the State Department says 
that Mr. Rockhill never sent any such letters. 

Therefore it is but fair to him, it is but fair to myself, and but 
fair to the cause I represent, not to quote those things and make 
them a part of the Record. It is charged; he denies it; the proof 
is not here. 1 leave it with his conscience, but I call his atten- 
tion to one fact: In the communication yesterday received from 
the Executive Mansion, the facts of which were furnished to the 
President presumably from the State Department, it is stated 
that ' ' official information from our consuls in Cuba establishes 
the fact that a large number of Americans," etc. When did this 
gentleman get that information to furnish the Executive? Let 
him answer the people through the press to-morrow. He says 
he never told a United States consul to shade a report; he never 
told him to mark it "confidential" to keep the Senate from get- 
ting it. 

Let him make answer through the press and over his name 
to-night or to-morrow, if he will. When, Mr. Rockhill, did you 
get the information that you sent to the Senate that 800 American 
citizens are starving in Cuba? Did you get it yesterday? Did 
you get it last night? Did you get it last month? You know what 
we know. Let him answer. He may deny, if he will, directing 
the United States consuls to withhold reports, but he can not 
deny, and show the file mark of his office upon the proposition 
that we believe to be true, that for days and months he has had 
possession of that information and that it never went to the 
Executive until Saturday. 

One word, Mr. President, and I shall conclude. My good friend 
the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Wellington] , who is always in 
earnest and always good-natured, and who wrested the great 
State he represents from the fallacies of free silver and free trade, 
seemed to think yesterday, and has intimated to-day, that no 
newspaper reports can be relied upon. My rule in that regard is 
this: When they speak well of me, I am sure it is true, and if they 
speak ill, everybodj^ knows it is false. [Laughter.] So we are 
xerj apt to act, I admit, when we read these reports from Cuba in 
the newspapers. When they do not happen to fit his idea of inde- 
pendence, of belligerency, he can not possibly believe them, and I 
can not help believing them. It is the way we are made. 

But as to his general statement in regard to them, he did not 
mean to be unfair, but he was. Chicago had a rerjorter on the 

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field of a three-clays engagement^ in Cuba. Charles Crosby was 
killed in the Island of Cuba. He was not there to write ro 
inanees. He was there to furnish the great, throbbing 70,000,000 
of people with news, news of struggling Cuba; to put a light upon 
the watch tower of the liberty-loving people of America that they 
might know whether liberty was dead or whether on this con- 
tinent the slave should still be held. Crosby was not a romancer. 
He answered to his profession with his life. Of ten of the corre- 
spondents of theU nited States newspapers who have gone to Cuba, 
five have left their lives there. Fifty per cent of the ten we know. 
Four are dead, one of them is standing to-day in the shadow of 
the grave, and yet, going into a climate that is dangerous, going 
into the very field of battle, as the old war correspondents used 
to do in 1860 to 1805, they have stood where the fight was hot, and 
no man who carried a gun earned more honor in many a field than 
the brave newspaper lad who sent the news, sent home tidings of 
victory for the Union flag. 

I insist that while newspaper reports are often conflicting, often, 
it may be, exaggerated, I insist that after eighteen months of 
repeated statements, after eighteen months of conflicting news — 
not conflicting apon one proposition — after eighteen months of 
regular reports from the scene of conflict, it is time for gentlemen 
to say we have got to accept the newspaper reports. There is no 
contradicting it. I do not deny the fact that they are often en- 
larged upon, but I do say that the best means of information we 
have comes from that source, and I am sure my distinguished 
friend did not mean, in the heat of his argument, to cast a reflec- 
tion upon a class of men whose profession is as honorable as his 
or mine, and more laborious, involving much more suffering, 
God knows, to that class of them certainly who have to sit in the 
gallery at about §40 a week and listen to the speeches we make on 
this floor. 

Mr. GALLINGER. Will the Senator from Illinois permit an 
observation? 

Mr. MASON. Certainly. 

Mr. GALLINGSB. As I remember the matter, Mr. Crosby, 
the correspondent of the Chicago newspaper, lost his life while he 
was on the field observing a battle between the Spanish and Cuban 
forces. Is that correct? 

Mr. MASON. Yes, sir. He stood within 6 feet of the insurgent 
general. He was shot by a sharpshooter. It is the first time I 
have ever known a Chicago newspaper man to get the worst of 
it. [Laughter.] He always gets the news and never gets hurt; 
but this brave boy, who was reporting for one of our Chicago 
dailies, was struck here [indicating] and the bullet came out there 
[indicating] , and he fell, mortally wounded. He was a news- 
paper man, not a writer of fiction. 

Mr. GALijlNGES. Yet we seem to be hesitating, and some 
Senators are declaiming against our acknowledging a state of 
war in Cuba. _ They say it does not ezist. 

Mr. MASOlS! . Mr. President, one word and I shall be through. 
I am sorry to have taken so long. I have felt that I wanted to 
vote upon_ this question, and following my platform, every line 
of which 1 read and a part of which I wish to insert in my speech 
I intend to vote upon this question if it takes all summer. 

My friend says that the four years of depression came from a 
lack of confidence in Europe. It is true to a certain extent. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. I beg the Senator's pardon, if he will 

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14 

permit me right here again. I am sure he does not want to be 
■unfair. 

Mr. MASON. Not at all. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. I said it arose from a lack of confidence 
both anions' ourselves and in European countries. 

Mr. MASON. All right. I will accept the amendment. Still 
he has not told it all. It came from the widespread dissatisfac- 
tion and distrust; hut it came principally because the money of the 
country would not circulate among the arteries of trade. 

Mr. WELLINGTON. Why was that? 

Mr. MASON. Because of the passage of the bill that encour- 
aged Americans to give labor to foreigners when it should have 
been given to the American people. ~Y ou preached that doctrine 
from every stump in Maryland, and believe it as well as I do. 

Mr. WELLINGTON . Certainly. I merely wished to empha- 
size the fact of the lack of confidence. 

Mr. MASON. Yes; but it was not produced by anything we 
had clone by way of demanding our rights among the nations of 
ihe world. " Fear of Europe! Afraid of war! He suggested how 
gunboats would clean eur frontier. 

Mr. President, if we did not have a ship in the world, if every 
gun was melted into a plowshare, if every bayonet was buried, if 
every ship we ever had was sunk in the middle of the sea, there is 
no nation in the world, much less Spain, that would ever dare 
strike our colors or invade American soil. [Applause in the gal- 
leries.] 

Here is my doctrine at St. Louis. Its location was a trifle bad. 
[Laughter.] "Cuba" is the heading. I am reading to you, my 
colleagues upon this floor, the platform I submitted to the intelli- 
gent people of Illinois as a reason why McKinley should be Presi- 
dent and I, or some other good Republican, should be Senator from 
that State. I read it, and I want every gentleman on this side of 
the Chamber to remember it and those of you who have changed 
your minds, say so when you help to filibuster against the joint 
resolution. Oh, filibuster is a harsh word! It jars upon the sensi- 
tive minds and the delicate touch of those of us who are popular in 
Spanish quarters, but filibuster is the word. You have indulged 
in it with a grave and gentle smile. You have kept from a vote 
with a filibuster, covered with a masked face and kid gloves, but 
I give you notice that when you get a filibuster from Illinois there 
will be no mask, there will be no kid gloves, it will be a straight 
filibuster from the start to the finish. 

Here is my platform that I was pledged to when I came here: 
"Cuba." 

You remember how the great hall rang. The great, struggling, 
liberty-loving people of the world said: "At last the Republican 
party is on the high road to success. McKinley, sure! .Liberty 
for Cuba will come." The Republican party spoke, and from the 
days of Lincoln to the days of McKinley it has never stepped 
backward from one plank of its platform, ancj it will not do so 
now. 

"Cuba!" at St. Louis when we wanted votes. [Laughter.] 
Listen, my good Republican brother. There is here no question 
of Presidential jurisdiction or Congressional jurisdiction. The 
jurisdiction of the convention decided it — the jurisdiction of the 
convention — and there never has been a convention since Lincoln 
was nominated that came closer from the hearts of the people than 
the convention at St. Louis, Hear what the jurisdiction of the 
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people was. Hear the decree of a court that always has jua 
tion once in four years: 

The Government of Spain having lost control of Cuba— 

What— 

haying lost control of Cuba— 

2Tow, as a Republican, I ask tkstBepabiieaHS'wkQ live upon Sihat 
platform, have you lost control, or do you rise to tlie dizzy h 
of Senatorial jurisdiction and forget your promises made before 
election and in convention? 

Spain having lost jurisdiction — 

having lost control of Cuba, and being unable to-jroteet theproTertv ::■ lives 
of resident American citizens — 

Was it not true? In the name of God and the light of prophecy, 
have yon read the message of McKinley? Then go back and read 
the first chapter (our platform) , and see whether, in the light of 
prophecy, taking Mr. AlcKinley*s message, our splendid President 
and our splendid convention, it was not true. Did he not tell you 
that 800 American citizens are starving there? Did we not tell 
you in our convention that they had so lost control of Cuba that 
they could not protect American citizens? 

Just let me read this plank: 

CUBA. 

From the hour of achieving their own independence the people of the 
United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles of other American 
peoples to free themselves from European domination. We -watch with deep 
ana abiding interest the heroic battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty 
and oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full success of their deter- 
mined contest for liberty. 

The Government of Spain having lost control of Cuba and being unable 

to protect the property or lives of resident American citizens, or to comoly 

with its treaty obligations, we believe that the Government of the United 

should actively use its influence and good offices to restore -oeace- and 

give independence to the island. 

In convention pledged to the loaf of independence, in the hour of 
success we hesitate to give the crumb of belligerency. I am proud 
to be a member of the party that never broke its pledge. Yes, it 
has once or twice, because the Senate was in the control of the 
minority. But from the days of .Lincoln to the days of McKimv 




My 

distinguished friend the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge] 
was on the committee to draw up the resolution, and when it was 
heard, reciprocity shook the rafters, protection set everybody to 
workwich hands and feet; but when we spoke the broad, deep tone 
of liberty, when we said we remembered Valley Forge, and by the 
eternal freedom there won, by everything dear to Americans, 



Are you as good as your promises before election? Did you be- 
lieve m the platform then? There is not one on this side of the 
Chamber who did not speak for it in all its planks, and to-day you 
stand here idle, not like Republicans, but like men who seem to 
iiave gone to sleep, men who seem to have forgotten the pledges 
their party made. 

Mr. President, I had intended to read one or two instances 
where we do not rely altogether on newspaper reports. Kb one 
cioubts the statement of John McCullough, an American who 
owns his own farm .20 miles east of Sagua la Grande. In Feb- 
ruary, 600 refugees were upon his farm starving, sick with fever. 
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He rode to tlie officers of the Spanish army at Sagua begging to buy 
quinine and other medicines, and the reply was: ' ' Let them suffer.*" 
Mr. McCullough protested in the name of humanity, and said they 
were pacific, innocent peasants. " But they are Cubans, are they 
not?" 'asked the Spaniard. Mr. McCullough said they were 
Cubans, yes. " Then let them die. So much the better. The 
quicker the breed is exterminated the better i like it." 
* No one doubts his statement. He is not a newspaper corre- 
spondent writing fiction. No one doubts the statement made by 
that woman who has spoken in many places, who saw the out- 
rages in the past. No one doubts that they took the Cuban boy, 
15 or 18 years old, and stood him in the line and shot him like a dog, 
not for what he had done, but that the blood of an insurgent was 
in his veins. You remember it possibly, about the time we came 
here; when I thought I saw the grandest gathering in the world 
under one roof. I saw my colleagues come in one by one. I saw 
the Representatives Of the House, and recognized that here was 
the lawmaking power of the greatest nation in the world. I saw 
the Supreme Court, in its dignity and its great equipment for 
work, file in one by one, and remembered that that judiciary, in 
all the annals of the past, had never had its character impugned 
or_its reputation assailed. 

1 saw the representatives of the Army and Navy come in and 
take their seats here. I saw our wives and our children in the 
galleries, and i was inspired with the thought that this is the great- 
est nation in the world, strong in war or in peace; and at that very 
moment I remembered the Cuban boy, without a name, taken out 
the day before by the Spaniard to be shot to death, lie asked only 
one privilege, that his eyes might be uncovered, that he might 
turn his eyes to the hills from whence he came. I have been out- 
raged and shocked by the cruelties ofthe past, but I was inspired 
by the death of that Cuban boy, and 1 have been silent too long to 
carry out the wishes of the plain people who sent me here. 

I hold my commission, Mr. President, from no set of men. I 
got my seat from no boss. I hold my place, your equals politically, 
through the machinations or dictations of no machine. By the 
eternal power I hold my commission from the people. I promised 
the people I would speak, and if I have been too long silent or too 
long speaking I shall answer to my people and my people alone. 

You know the outrages. You do not need official returns. You 
know them from the reports of women of our own country who have 
seen them pass the daughters of the Cuban out of the windows as 
a prey to the brutal licentiousness of the Spanish soldier, and we, 
fathers of daughters, gather our children about our own hearth- 
stone and lock the outside door and say, "Am I my brother's 
keeper? " I am my brother's keeper! Then we march back to the 
Senate of the United. States, with the voices of children and women 
in our ears, innocent girls ravished and murdered by the Spanish 
soldiery, and not denied; we gather around in our dignified way 
and talk about Presidential jurisdiction, Congressional jurisdiction ! 

Mr. President, no one expects war, but if to keep our promises 
with Cuba and protect her means war, let it come. If to protest 
against the butchery of women and children means war, let it 
come. If to defend the honest daughters of brave patriots means 
an insult to Spain and war, in the name of God, let it come, and 
come quickly.' Whether you sleep bound hand and foot by the 
rules of order, or whether you speak like American brave men, 
the spirit of the Nazarene is upon us; liberty shall prevail, and 
the Island of Cuba, under the providence of God, shall be free. 
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